The kids are back and they are fuckin’ feral, for real this time. Now, to fully explain the return of Kid, Feral it should be noted the original comeback for this band was scheduled many years ago, and it didn’t go as planned, as not everything in life does.

I have to go back down memory lane to get the full story of this bands comeback. During a painfully depressing period of my life in 2020 I started a podcast and blogspot (dumb idea), but I had dreams of interviewing bands I loved and maybe one day even writing for them. Kid, Feral were one of the first bands to come onto this podcast and agree to an interview with me. Their guitarist and vocalist, Vile Hartman, was supposed to come on the show to chat but some wires were crossed and I ended up speaking with their drummer Jesper instead, who was very drunk at the time. He was in the middle of a house party so I joined the party and we had some great laughs on that episode.

For that scheduled episode, Vile had agreed to debut a new Kid, Feral song on the podcast. Well, it wasn’t a full song, it was an unmastered instrumental that was originally titled “Hippopola”, now titled as “Last Seen Online 651 Days Ago” and it’s still unreleased. The instrumental debut was intended to be a tease of new music to come but no one expected their next move to be a hiatus. A painful hiatus plagued with health issues and uncertainty, but that was 2021 and this is now.

The Swedish skramz trio of Kid, Feral are back now to make up for lost time and we have the full story from Vile about the bands hiatus, his recovery, and the bands triumphant return to a scene that has missed them so, so much.

FROM SPEAKING WITH YOU PRIVATELY, I KNOW SOME OF THE BATTLE THAT HAS OCCURED BEHIND THE SCENES, BUT FOR THE FANS WHO DON’T KNOW, DO YOU MIND SPEAKING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED DURING THIS HIATUS AND THE JOURNEY IT’S BEEN FOR YOU?

Vile: “Well it started out during Covid, I had a relationship that didn't quite work out the way we hoped and we were stuck together. Not from anyone's fault, just the world situation at that time ya know? Anyway, because I was isolated and things at home weren't working out, I was missing my friends a lot. I was working from home at my computer, and then after eight hours of working I played League of Legends with my friends day after day.

I started having some nerve pain, which I have had bouts of before, but this time because of this extraordinary situation I just ignored it and it became worse and worse. Anyway, fast forward, me and my girlfriend at the time broke up, but my problems lingered. My problems became better and worse and better and worse, oscillating. I decided that going to the gym was probably a good idea to just work it out slowly with strength training.

My problems weren't that bad and I was able to have a normal routine, everything just felt kind of weird in my hands but it wasn't necessarily pain so to speak. But then I had a session at the gym in April 2021, and I remember coming home after that, then just feeling like something was very off. I didn't exactly have pain, I just couldn't hold a piece of paper without shaking. I went to sleep and woke up and had pretty excruciating pain from that point forward.

I'd say it's stabilized around a year ago or so but it was still life-altering shitty. Everyday was an absolute struggle with me doing something fun like cooking, and then having awful flare-ups. During this time I met my current girlfriend, which helped me through this period. She's helped out a bunch on this EP. She made the artwork and helped me cut the sleeves and shit for the CD, shout-out Adriana, I love you. 

Anyway, in May this year I had double nerve release surgery in my right arm. I have problems in both my hands but I'd say my right was definitely a lot worse. What they did is that they cut a ligament in my bicep as well as the carpal tunnel ligament. It was about a month of recovery until I could go back to work.

Two months after I did a Canadian tour where we played New Friends Fest. It's gotten a lot better since then! I'm having another surgery in my left arm, but only cutting the bicep ligament, hopefully it'll heal even more after that. On top of my nerve issues in the hands I’ve also had a lot of problems with my voice. This started around 2020 as well.

I had to go to speech therapy because I had a constant painful sore throat for perhaps two years. It flares up now sometimes but it's not as bad. I did in fact have a flare up during the Canada tour, it's definitely noticeable in some videos. I also felt very stiff on some shows because I had to focus on having perfect technique to not make it worse, but being stiff and careful is way better than not being able to play or sing at all so I ain't mad!

Anyway that's the whole story, it was a lot of struggle but I learned a lot and honestly I don't regret it now. It's sad to think about how much time I've lost, but now that the band is going again I'm really excited and just looking forward to the future! I have been yearning for the moment I'd be back on my shit, and now that it's happening I'm beyond excited. Quick shout-out to Nate at No Funeral Records.

I feel like after surgery, the thing that gave me my confidence about the band fully is the tour he booked for us in Canada. What he and the crew in Basque and Terry Green did for us is indescribable. A true bond was formed during that week that'll last us a lifetime. We are grateful beyond words! Thank you, Canadian sweethearts!”

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR WRITING PROCESS FOR THE HEADLIGHTS EP?

Vile: “Basically, I write a shitty demo with dry guitar and dry bass, then I show it to the guys, they say something is good or it sucks. Usually they like it but sometimes they say "oh this is boring can you just make this part shorter or something". Then I take it to the band, we learn to play the guitar & bass and we try rehearsing it together as an actual band, our drummer Jesper is amazing at coming up with drum parts. Sometimes I direct him but usually the drums are just awesome from right when we start playing it first time.

The screaming is then done intuitively by what feels good to play & scream at the same time with gibberish lyrics. Then I fit actual lyrics into the gibberish, and boom we're done writing.”

WHAT BANDS DID YOU TAKE INFLUENCE FROM ON THIS RELEASE?

Vile: “I'm a huge fan of Jeromes Dream on a music level, but our songwriting style is probably a bit closer to Raein. I'm also a huge fan of shoegaze and Japanese style chord-things so I think that peeks through. I also really like medieval lute music and old video game soundtracks. Our music is not really a ‘I'm gonna write songs that's in the style of X band / sound’ it's more just intuitive like ‘trying to do something interesting in every part of the song all the time’ kinda style, and how it comes out is just what makes sense to me personally with that goal in mind.”

“FOR ME, MY MUSIC IS ABOUT MAKING SOMETHING THAT’S INTERESTING AND PLEASING TO AN AUDIENCE. I ALWAYS WANT TO HANDLE THEIR ATTENTION IN A RESPECTFUL WAY, SO I GUESS THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE IS THINKING ABOUT THE PEOPLE LISTENING IN THE END.”

- VILE @KID.FERAL

HOW WAS HEADLIGHTS EP RECORDED?

Vile: “After a shitty demo has been recorded on our phones and we can play the songs, we go to the studio to track drums, after that we usually do bass first, then I go bananas with the guitar & production. Record a bunch of extra layers, clean vocal background stuff, tambourine, piano. Whatever fits the songs. Then I mix and master everything myself, I run a game audio production studio, so having a band is something that synergizes well with that.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SAY ABOUT THIS EP?

Band: “We tried to make a release that almost sounded like one long song, where the songs blend into each other very seamlessly.”

Vile: “Also the lyrics are very relevant to what's been on my mind lately. I really hate ‘omg we're all gonna die oh no doomsday’ music but this release is a bit like that so yeah.. I tried to make it a bit more nuanced from my own personal perspective. Idk it's just what's been on my mind.”

SO DO THE KIDS HAVE ANY SHOWS OR TOURS COMING UP?

“We're playing Copenhagen in February at See You Next Summer Fest.” 

NOW THAT YOU’RE FINALLY BACK, WHAT’S NEXT FOR KID FERAL?

Band: “We wanna finish an LP we've been writing since 2018, should be done really soon so we're gonna release like early next year or something! Also trying to get people to listen to the music more and see if we still have the magic sauce that made our first LP linger in people's minds for so long. We also have a bunch of new-new songs as well that are super different in style to the things we've done before. Exploring a bunch of different genres but playing it like a screamo band.

Imagine shoegaze, pop punk or idk maybe Joy Division, but the songs are 90 seconds long and unrelenting. Each song ofthe new-new stuff is like a different genre so it's kinda pastiche? I dunno, gonna be super interesting to see what people say about that as well.”

ANY CLOSING THOUGHTS?

“We’re just so grateful that people still listen to this dumb band we started in 2016, there’s been a shit ton of life stuff that has happened since then but we are back!”

Listen to the full Headlights EP streaming below, go follow their Instagram page that I’ve linked below as well, Kid, Feral also recently released a new music video for their song “Am I Better Than All Of You?”, which you can watch here. “An Answered Prayer” is the second single off the EP which is debuting here below on the embedded link.

Headlights EP will be available on all streaming services this Friday and a limited run of 100 DIY CDs have been pressed by the band which you can purchase on their bandcamp this coming Friday so grab a copy while ya can!